Uttarakhand assembly budget session on July 21 & 22

Chief minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday said that the state government will stick to the schedule of holding a two-day assembly session on July 21 and 22 to pass the state’s appropriation bill which he added, needs to be cleared on priority.

“The state government has been facing severe financial crunch for the last six months due to the delay in the passing of the budget. In order to ensure that there is no further delay, it is imperative to take a decision in the interests of the state. The opposition should also co-operate in this regard,” Rawat said at a media briefing at Beejapur House in the city.

The two-day assembly session was earlier scheduled for July 4 and 5 but the dates were later shifted to July 21 and 22 following a meeting of the state cabinet almost a week ago.

Rawat added that the appropriation bill for a Rs 40,000-crore budget had been drafted by the state government based on “the suggestions made by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley.” “We received inputs from the finance minister regarding the bill after our delegation met him in New Delhi a few days ago. The draft of the bill has also been sent to governor KK Paul for his approval”, he said.

Referring to the previous appropriation bill which Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal had claimed had been passed by the House on March 18 but whose validity was now pending before the Supreme Court, Rawat said that the state government “had also consulted legal experts to ensure that no legal hurdles came while passing the same budget from the House for the second time.”